I just received my new Logitech G710+ mechanical keyboard with Cherry MX Brown keys. I'll be updating this post with some comments a little later as I get used to the layout. However, my first impression is very good. I am upgrading from a Logitech K800 which I loved, being wireless and LED backlit. Especially the way the backlighting came on when your hands got close to the board. But, over the last year I have been playing a lot of WOW and it became clear to me that I need some audible/tactile feedback as to when I have hit a key. Also, it seemed like the K800 sometimes could not keep up with keystrokes. This board is supposed to have 26-key rollover. Finally, I wanted to be able to touch type more rapidly and the low end Dell keyboard at work is superior for typing compared to my K800. From reviews here at Tech-Report I decided I needed a mechanical keyboard and that only Cherry MX Brown keys would suffice. From my experience with the K800, I required LED backlighting. So when this new keyboard was announced; I knew I had to have one.

So, I played WOW for the first time with it last night. The layout required a little bit of stretching since the keys have significant vertical travel compared to the K800. But it took very little time for it to feel natural and I am sure it will only get better. As to touch typing, well its just superb.

There are 6 macro keys which can each be assigned three macros. I have not tried them yet because they only work if you download the logitech support software. I don't know if WinXP-64 OS is supported. There is a windows menu lockout key for gaming and it lights an LED when it is enabled.

This really feels great for touch typing! There are four levels of backlighting (and dark). One button controls just the WASD and arrow keys and the other button controls all the rest of the keys. Only the top half of shifted keys are backlit. The numeric keys have the shifted characters below instead of the numbers so that only the numbers are illuminated. However, for touch typists, this is not a problem because the keys behave properly. I applaud the choice because I like having the numbers prominently visible for the gaming aspect. The keys are black matt finished and you cannot feel the lettering. There is a volume roll bar and volume on/off button, both of which work without needing any software support. The cable (good length but did not measure, but I need a long one) comes out through the middle of the back of the keyboard and is quite heavy. There is a separate USB2 pass through rolled into the cable (two USB2 plugs at the PC end) and the pass through USB2 port is close to the center of the back of the keyboard where it is out of the way of my mousing surface to the right of my keyboard. Using it for my mouse at the moment. The keyboard is heavy compared to any other board I've owned. The frame is rigid and It feels volumetrically dense when hefted. If you clocked somebody with this board, they might not get back up very quickly. Only my M-series is heavier. The wrist rest feels comfortable and hooks to the board. Hooks for the wrist rest look a little frail but no stress on them unless you are gonna move the board a lot. Flip out legs on the back of the board give a good slope. Although the back feet are not rubberized; the front and back corners of the board have large soft pads. This board is not going to shift on your desk. I don't think I will bother getting any second market wrist rest; as this feels pretty good. Finally, all the keys you would normally type in use are Cherry MX Brown switched, including the arrows, numbers, function, and G1 through G6 macro keys. In other words all the keys you would find on a regular keyboard are mechanical on this one. Only the special use function keys along the very top of the keyboard feel like they are not mechanical.

The left side Ctrl key is the default key for ventrillo, so it gets mashed a lot when running hot in a 5-man in WOW. It started tipping off center at first, and then soon after broke off.

Now we shall see if Logitech has decent customer report. The 'Ctrl' key has fallen off because the plastic spline gripper inside the key cap has split off. The cherry brown key itself is fine and I can use it without the cover (the bare LED is a little bright) But the key cover is SOL. I just contacted Logitech customer support from their web page and requested a new key. We shall see how quickly they respond, or if they even respond at all.

Anybody that knows of a reliable source of replacement parts; please chime in.

Looks like Logitech might be using some slightly non-standard keycaps though. It is not clear to me from the pictures of the G710+ whether the Ctrl keys on the G710+ are mechanically identical to a standard Cherry "Row 1 1x1.25" cap. If they are, you're golden; if the G710+ one is larger, the standard replacement will fit (but with a slightly larger gap between it and the Windows key); if it is smaller then using a standard replacement is going to be a no-go.

Mr Bill wrote:We shall see how quickly they respond, or if they even respond at all.

Logitech has really good customer support. I anticipate that they will either ship you a new key or an entirely new keyboard without much fuss. I have gotten brand new replacements on several items over the years.

Things I've seen broken in the hands of a friend of mine who like me is extremely careful with his gear:- Extreme 3D Pro (notice a pattern?)- Logitech Z-5500s - after having an electronics friend fix them (out of warranty), he said that by the way it was built, it was not a matter of if they're going to break, just when.- Logitech G27 wheel (very $$$, unforgivable).

I'll grant you that they have good customer support - they replaced most of the above. But the build quality has gotten so shoddy that it doesn't really pay off. Good old days when Logitech meant "quality-built".

Disclaimer: these are my personal opinions, not of TR.

Anyway, sorry for the tangent

There is a fixed amount of intelligence on the planet, and the population keeps growing :(

IMO, Logitech's keyboards were always pretty **** (I have tried plenty of them), BUT I was pleasantly surprised by their first mechanical attempt with G710... Pretty nice build quality - been using mine for a couple of months, no issues, no broken keys or "burned-out" LEDs and at least they weren't trying to save few cents by making some of the keys with cheaper silicone domes

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Looks like Logitech might be using some slightly non-standard keycaps though. It is not clear to me from the pictures of the G710+ whether the Ctrl keys on the G710+ are mechanically identical to a standard Cherry "Row 1 1x1.25" cap. If they are, you're golden; if the G710+ one is larger, the standard replacement will fit (but with a slightly larger gap between it and the Windows key); if it is smaller then using a standard replacement is going to be a no-go.

I've done some comparison - the Ctrl key on Logitech G710 has the same size as "Tab" key on my Ducky keyboard... So maybe the correct replacement key from wasdkeyboards's site is "row 3, size 1x1.50"

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JohnC wrote:I've done some comparison - the Ctrl key on Logitech G710 has the same size as "Tab" key on my Ducky keyboard... So maybe the correct replacement key from wasdkeyboards's site is "row 3, size 1x1.50"

It might be the correct width, but the top surface will not be at the correct angle (front-to-back) for the Ctrl key. That's what the row numbers are for in a "scooped" keyboard array (as used on most mechanical keyboards) -- they indicate the degree of tilt of the keycap.

Looking a bit more closely at pictures of the G710+, I think the keycaps may also be non-standard (taller) height, so the standard replacement keycaps may not be such a good idea regardless.

I have an incident open with Logitech. I was over a week getting back to them after they responded (I hate looking through all the spam for my e-mails). They requested that I upload a photo which includes: my keyboard, copy of the receipt, and the incident number written on the receipt. I also included the bare key position in the photo and the upside down ctrl key showing the broken mounting post.

Hope to have action soon. One thing of interest. this key cover has a little rubber O ring around the gripping post. I suppose it is to keep the gripper tight and maybe also to dampen the sound slightly when you strike the keys.

I got this E-mail below. As of today, I am still waiting for both the new unit and the shipping label. I hope they are just sending me the key cap and not a refurbished keyboard. I will let you guys know. As it stands, they consider the matter now closed on their support website and if I want to pursue this further I must open a new incident. Its been about 10 business days and counting...

Logitech G710 Mechanical Gaming // left 'Ctrl' key has broken off

This incident cannot be reopened or updated. If you need further assistance, please submit a new question.Communication History

Response Ferdinand via Email 02/12/2013 09:21 AMHi Bill,

Thank you for contacting the Logitech Customer Care Team, and for updating your incident.

Thank you for verifying your address, and for sending the copy of your receipt. The replacement for your device is already released and just waiting for shipping. Please be informed that the replacement device still carries the remaining warranty of the original device.

It should take about five to seven business days for the replacement unit to reach you. An auto-generated e-mail from our system will be sent to you once the replacement unit has been shipped out from our distribution center. This e-mail will contain the shipping information and tracking number of the replacement product.

Also, please be informed that our Warranty Replacement Department would like to request for your device. Please expect a shipping label within 24 - 48 hours.

I would also like to inform you that you might receive a short survey regarding the service that I have provided (if you didn't receive the survey, kindly check it in your SPAM folder). Your feedback is very important to us so that we could continually improve our service. I hope you could answer the survey.

Question 1 is about your overall satisfaction with our service (10 being the highest). Please do not be confused with Question 7, which is for the number of times you’ve created a ticket to resolve this specific issue and not for the number of times you have replied to my email. Please inform us if you didn't receive the survey so we could send you new one. Thank you!

If you will be having any problems with your Logitech devices, please do not hesitate to contact us either by phone or by email. We will gladly help you out with any concern with your device.

I use Cherry MX Brown keyboards almost exclusively. After using them for a while, I learned to only press them down to the activation point, that light tactile click about half way down, and only bottom-out the keys when I'm agitated

Here's the list of ones that I've tried, in decreasing order of how much I like them:1) Rosewill RK9000BR: Died after 3 months from the well-known USB connector problem. Currently disassembled, waiting until I pick up some solder wick to redo the USB connector. This is my favorite ever. The feel is "crisp" and light, and more solid than the other ones.2) Filco Majectouch FKBN104EM/EB: Oldest of the bunch, and the one I use the most. It actually does "ring" when I really get going on it. Just slightly mushier than the RK900BR, and slightly more drag on the keytops moving from key to key. I'm just not as fast as I was on the RK900BR. Certain keys squeaked until they broke-in after a week or so.3) Rosewill RK9001BR: The back lit keys help when the only other light in the room is coming from the monitor. I mostly touch-type, but still have to look when going after the symbols on the number row, or hitting Fn keys. Not as solid or crisp as the RK9000BR.4) Filco Ninja Tenkeyless FKBN87M/EFB2: Feels more "plasticy" then the above. Lighter and moves around as I type to the point where I miss key strokes. I like the key legends on the front-side of the keys. I occasionally carry this with me when traveling if I know I'll have a lot of typing to do.5) X-Armour U9BL-S: I really just never liked this quite as much as the above. It's getting dusty attached to a machine I mostly use headless. The back-lighting is better than the RK9001BR. The spacebar tends to stick. Never like the feel of the keytops.

I'm always looking for better MX-Brown keyboards, so may try the Das or Logitech next time I need/want another...

MarkG509 wrote:1) Rosewill RK9000BR: Died after 3 months from the well-known USB connector problem. Currently disassembled, waiting until I pick up some solder wick to redo the USB connector. This is my favorite ever. The feel is "crisp" and light, and more solid than the other ones.

You might also want to add an improvised strain relief to the cable to take the stress off of the connector, like I did: viewtopic.php?p=1119554#p1119554 (last pic in that post).

MarkG509 wrote:I use Cherry MX Brown keyboards almost exclusively. After using them for a while, I learned to only press them down to the activation point, that light tactile click about half way down, and only bottom-out the keys when I'm agitated

Here's the list of ones that I've tried, in decreasing order of how much I like them:1) Rosewill RK9000BR: Died after 3 months from the well-known USB connector problem. Currently disassembled, waiting until I pick up some solder wick to redo the USB connector. This is my favorite ever. The feel is "crisp" and light, and more solid than the other ones.2) Filco Majectouch FKBN104EM/EB: Oldest of the bunch, and the one I use the most. It actually does "ring" when I really get going on it. Just slightly mushier than the RK900BR, and slightly more drag on the keytops moving from key to key. I'm just not as fast as I was on the RK900BR. Certain keys squeaked until they broke-in after a week or so.3) Rosewill RK9001BR: The back lit keys help when the only other light in the room is coming from the monitor. I mostly touch-type, but still have to look when going after the symbols on the number row, or hitting Fn keys. Not as solid or crisp as the RK9000BR.4) Filco Ninja Tenkeyless FKBN87M/EFB2: Feels more "plasticy" then the above. Lighter and moves around as I type to the point where I miss key strokes. I like the key legends on the front-side of the keys. I occasionally carry this with me when traveling if I know I'll have a lot of typing to do.5) X-Armour U9BL-S: I really just never liked this quite as much as the above. It's getting dusty attached to a machine I mostly use headless. The back-lighting is better than the RK9001BR. The spacebar tends to stick. Never like the feel of the keytops.

I'm always looking for better MX-Brown keyboards, so may try the Das or Logitech next time I need/want another...

Since you liked Rosewill model, I suggest giving Ducky keyboards a try... They are like Rosewills, only made by people whose "hands don't grow out of their asses", so to speak Meaning no need for soldering iron - the USB cable is also detachable, BUT it is properly "secured". They also provide a choice of many Cherry key types, as well as the choice of key backlighting.

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Thanks! So, that where I saw it..I was looking for that post. I'm doing *exactly* the same repair job, right down to the right-angle USB cable. How well has your's held up since the repair? (Sorry if asking this counts as jacking the thread.)

You might also want to add an improvised strain relief to the cable to take the stress off of the connector, like I did: viewtopic.php?p=1119554#p1119554 (last pic in that post).

MarkG509 wrote:Thanks! So, that where I saw it..I was looking for that post. I'm doing *exactly* the same repair job, right down to the right-angle USB cable. How well has your's held up since the repair? (Sorry if asking this counts as jacking the thread.)

The connector has been fine. However, if you look at the 2nd page of the other thread, the '4' key on the numpad went intermittent recently due to a cracked solder joint (had to have another go at the keyboard with the soldering iron, it's working again). Can continue the discussion over in the other thread if you want...